Minors' e-mail protocol revised

The executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce has apologized for the mistake of an employee, who accidentally revealed the e-mail addresses of four minors who were in the state's Child Protection Registry.

Francine Giani said Friday she also has reorganized how the Utah Division of Consumer Protection handles public requests for information through the state's Government Records Access Management Act. Now, three employees will handle and review such requests instead of just one, she said.

A California-based trade association brought the mistake to light Thursday in court papers it filed in relation to its lawsuit that questions the constitutionality of the program. The registry is designed to keep sexually explicit e-mails — as well as advertisements for gambling, alcohol and tobacco products — from reaching the inboxes of Utah children.

"It's a group that doesn't like the registry and they are attempting to find an area where we made an error — and we did; I'm not going to color it and make it sound better," Giani said. "It's a legal tactic on their part, and it demonstrated a weakness.

"We made a mistake. I apologize for that. I make no excuses. It will allow us to (improve) the process we had in place."

The error occurred when the division employee failed to redact the four e-mail addresses before sending out requested copies of citations issued in September to four Internet companies. Those companies, the first to be cited since the registry's creation a year ago, were: DOS Media Now LLC of Encinitas, Calif., fined $5,000 for sending out gambling solicitations to an address listed in the registry; Golden Arches Casino of Overland Park, Kan., fined $2,500; a Singapore company, fined $20,000 for sending pornographic e-mails; and a United Kingdom company, fined $2,500 for alcohol advertising.

Giani noted the mistake was entirely the department's fault and had nothing to do with Unspam Registry Services, a Park City-based company contracted by the state to maintain the online registry.

"We got the e-mail addresses from those consumers, who contacted us to tell us that they got mail they shouldn't have gotten," Giani said. "And that's the bottom line — this has nothing to do with Unspam at all."

The trade association, a group of businesses called the Free Speech Coalition, which deals in sexually explicit material, plans to use the mix-up in its arguments before federal Judge Dale Kimball. A motion hearing in the group's suit is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.

Jerome Mooney, an attorney for the coalition, said the mistake does not help prove the group's claim that the law is unconstitutional.

"What it does is it demonstrates, I think, what the FTC was concerned about — it's that you have lots of different people at different stages in different places doing things (with the list of e-mail addresses) and whenever that happens, there are risks," Mooney said. "This whole issue is a secondary issue to the constitutional question involved."

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Contributing: Ben Winslow

E-mail: zman@desnews.com